In today's roundup, we've got a Noxychu comic, co-written with Khai'xur, to celebrate the launch of Hearthstone, as well as all the information on flying in Draenor, some Throwback Thursday World of Warcraft history, and the latest Talk Azeroth.

Talk Azeroth Episode 30

This week we're taking a basic look at how to use resources like Skada and Recount, or World of Logs and Warcraft Logs to examine and improve your gameplay, as well as examining ways to record your gameplay, including a full setup tutorial on my preferred capture program, DXTory.

Flying in Draenor

Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi has caused quite a stir in a recent video interview where he talks, among other things, about flying in Draenor. While he's talking about the expansion having no flying at all "at ship", many have interpreted this as meaning that there will be no flying throughout the expansion. There have been a couple of blue posts from Nethaera and several blue tweets trying to clear up any confusion.

Nethaera

It's only in the new areas. There is no difference than any other past expansions.You cannot fly at the beginning of expansions (cata being the one exception).I'm sure we will all live.

This is pretty true. You couldn't get flying in Outland until you reached maximum level and bought the skill. Wrath of the Lich King you couldn't fly right away either. The same recently for Mists of Pandaria in which until you reached the maximum level to get the ability to do so. This is not new for an expansion to not allow flying immediately upon entering into a new expansion.

That said, the developers are also aware of the concerns that people may have about how easy or difficult it will be to get around to the various locations. They have said before that they want to still provide convenient ways for people to still travel without minimizing the impact on exploration within the zones. As always, we welcome constructive feedback and discussion provided it's kept constructive. We'll also continue to keep an eye on things not only within beta (when that occurs) but also when we go live to see just how people truly end up playing and interacting.I just wanted to take a moment to reiterate that constructive feedback is great –we love it– and also to reemphasize that our goal is not to make it take longer to travel from zone to zone. We're not looking to make things inconvenient or a big time sink, we want to make sure that you're getting where you need to go in as convenient of a way as we possibly can. We said this much at BlizzCon already and that still holds true.

We will do our best to keep everyone as up to date on ongoing developments as we can.I've already said that what we said at BlizzCon still holds true at current. If ongoing development changes this including testing, feedback, and etc, then we'll keep people informed. We are in the midst of development and as with anytime we get into it, we often will change design ideas or implementations from what we originally thought we wanted to do to what we believe will more likely work better. We will continue to discuss our ideas as openly as possible (as Alex did) and keep an eye out on constructive feedback. We will do our utmost to address as many concerns that people may have as possible while still keeping in mind the overall health and objectives we have for the game.

We don't work in stone and design is a very fluid thing. We're going to keep moving forward toward creating fun experiences for as many people as possible. I said this over on Twitter and I'll say it again here- "Sometimes I feel I need to say this, but game design decisions are not personal. They aren't meant to cause personal distress. We do care." We want to make sure that Warlords of Draenor (and the game as a whole) continues to deliver truly great experiences and plenty of fun.

Comments

Comment by shimmybee

I'd personally love it if you couldn't Fly at all in WoD... it ruins so much aspects of the game. But sure, that's only my opinion.

Comment by Styk

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:36:18 -0500

I am fine without flying to 100. I do want to fly on my own at some point. The sooner after I hit 100 the better. I have no desire to ride around on the ground gathering resources and I really do not want to fight my way through a field of critters to get to them post 100.

Comment by Adamsm

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:39:01 -0500

Nice comic Noxy.

Comment by Tabularoinak

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:59:39 -0500

I agree with Shimmybee wholeheartedly. Flying was a wonderful, majestic thing when I first got it, the epic flying even moreso. These days, where gold is worth nothing and flying isn't a privelidge, it's an expectation and requirement, I despise it. When leveling alts, I don't even buy flying 'til level cap, if I do at all. I think no flying in Draenor would be a great reminder for the modern populous of WoW. A callback to the days of yore inside an expansion modeled after being a callback to the days of yore.

Comment by Yasunobu

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:10:32 -0500

Indeed, I wouldn't mind no flying in Draenor at all. It would mean that it felt more like an adventure again (as Tabularoinak hints), Sure flying is neat, but once you get it, you only end up using land mounts in areas where you can't fly (which is very few). Nonetheless, I'll still play Draenor, but I'm fine if they end up saying: "That flying thing? Let's skip it).

Comment by s4mourai

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:00:36 -0500

i dont like the idea to dont fly at all, so shut up fly master and take my money.

Comment by lankybrit

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:38:41 -0500

LOL - $50 for the expansion, and you assume it's Inflation?

They had a survey and asked how much extra to charge if it came with a 90 boost. The extra $10 if for the 90 boost.

Comment by Adamsm

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 19:05:37 -0500

LOL - $50 for the expansion, and you assume it's Inflation?

They had a survey and asked how much extra to charge if it came with a 90 boost. The extra $10 if for the 90 boost.

Comment by Worcester

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 19:47:57 -0500

Flying felt important in Outlands because it was part of the zone experience and design. After that, with each expansion, it's become less and less an interesting part of gameplay, and more and more a basic requirement.

Maybe flying... everywhere... should function like Fatigue? You have a certain amount of time in the air before you must land and "recharge". The recharge time could be significant enough that you'd probably prefer to move on the ground for a while rather than wait for fly time. This method wouldn't alter any areas that require flying. Also it opens up the possibility of "puzzles" involving flight. You could have zones that are tricky to navigate, areas that require rest stops, and maybe even some co-operative or creative transportation. "Oasis" areas in a flight-driven zone become valuable, and probably hotbeds of world PvP. Vendors in hard-to-reach areas become important... especially if they have rare items in limited supply. Maybe some mounts are more efficient than others? They could have stats. Using a character's own transportation abilities are also improved. Portals and gateways and speed boosts and teleports could help you navigate like never before. Flying in old zones might be easier (less fatigue) and harder in newer content. Heck, even the weather could become something to consider? Storms might make it impossible to fly.

Comment by Hunter242

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 20:54:04 -0500

I want to fly in Warlords i have payed loads of gold for the flight skills on all my toons and i think its me that pay for a game to play if i want to fly or not.Those that dont want to fly no one forcing you to do that just use the land mount if that makes you happy we all have different styles and how we like to play.

Iam ok with no flying until reaching max level but after that its up to mee to fly or not to fly since i pay a monthl fee.

Comment by Worcester

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 21:02:37 -0500

You pay a monthly fee to play a game. Whether or not that game includes flying is up to the developers, not your sense of entitlement. WoW didn't always include flying, and it might not always include flying.

Comment by Adamsm

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 21:08:27 -0500

Iam ok with no flying until reaching max level but after that its up to mee to fly or not to fly since i pay a monthl fee.

Actually....No it's not; read your ToS since it does out line exactly what Blizzard can do in regards to the game. You rent the game from Blizzard, and they can do a large number of things, such as shutting down the servers whenever they want.

Comment by Eostare

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 23:09:29 -0500

If they don't offer flying in WoD, then there isn't any practical* reason to get flying at all (more so for artisan and master riding). You can easily level from 1-100 without the use of flying mounts, heck you can even get from 1-90 by just queueing for dungeons and not buying any riding at all (even if it isn't as efficient as questing).

*As a quality of life improvement in terms of travel, questing, and gathering efficiency.

EDIT: Continuity-wise, it really wouldn't make much sense for us not to be able to fly in Draenor.

Comment by Hunter242

on Fri, 14 Mar 2014 23:31:58 -0500

Iam ok with no flying until reaching max level but after that its up to mee to fly or not to fly since i pay a monthl fee.

Actually....No it's not; read your ToS since it does out line exactly what Blizzard can do in regards to the game. You rent the game from Blizzard, and they can do a large number of things, such as shutting down the servers whenever they want.

Ok so i rent it but i still hold on to what i said i think its up to the players to choose if they want to fly or not. So i cant see any reason to remove flying those that prefer landmounts uses them and the people that want to fly can do that.

You pay a monthly fee to play a game. Whether or not that game includes flying is up to the developers, not your sense of entitlement. WoW didn't always include flying, and it might not always include flying.

True WoW didnt have flying in vanilla but i really dont miss those days when you had dto run around on a slow land mount over huge areas

Comment by Adamsm

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:01:43 -0500

Ok so i rent it but i still hold on to what i said i think its up to the players to choose if they want to fly or not. So i cant see any reason to remove flying those that prefer landmounts uses them and the people that want to fly can do that.

And since Blizzard said that they are currently planning on allowing Flying when the first content patch drops, or if enough people do say they'd rather have it sooner they'll look into it.

Comment by Rankkor

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:12:49 -0500

Nice comic Noxy =D

now if only we could have draenei with pink hair in the game U_U

Comment by vsxc100

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 01:15:01 -0500

heck you can even get from 1-90 by just queueing for dungeons and not buying any riding at all (even if it isn't as efficient as questing).

From level 15 to 90, to be exact...

IMO it is a good thing not to fly until max lvl. You can fully experience lore that way. You can spot some very interesting places while on the ground. Flying doesn't always allow you that. But when you finally hit the 100 and you've seen everything you were supposed to see there is no point in not skipping this, if you want, by flying over it. So flying: until 100 - NO, after 100 - YES.

Comment by Velrog

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 01:31:42 -0500

I would prefer if flying would be kept out entirely, flying ruins the game in that it lets you skip all that is meant to be seen and enjoyed. For you who don't care about all this as many others do, don't play a game that exists for its wonderful lore and aspects. Not just to get to max level and be better then every one else, flying mounts bypass all the beauty and liveliness of the game.

Comment by sprendinea

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:26:50 -0500

I am all up to ground-only Draenor. Flying was my main frustration while I was doing dailies. A warlock puts his teleport circle on a high pillar or a rooftop and gank everyone without any trouble. If you're range, he'll just get out of LoS. If you're melee, you're basically useless against ANY ranged class in that matter. And all the response I got for this nonsense was"go play on a pve server, scrub"

Comment by Keelerak

on Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:32:58 -0500

I, for one, don't think the flying mounts ruin the enjoyment of the environment, on the contrary, the aerial views are magnificent and I personally enjoy the world much more than from the narrow grounded view. I don't think fighting mundane mobs who randomly dismount me is a fun experience, it's a trivial fight with little to no reward, casting 5 spells and remounting does not seem like a "fun interaction with the world", it seems like an annoyance, not to even mention ganking, which is never fun. So no, I don't agree with the crowd about how horrible flying mounts are and how they ruin game experience.

On the other hand, I agree with the Blizzard's arguments about "providing more meaningful gameplay once you're there". When i have a quest to kill some boss in some encampment, fighting through his guards seems more interesting and logical than landing right in front of him and ignoring everything. But once they do enable flying, this benefit will be gone for alts and new players, and i don't think it is "worth it".

I think simply disabling flying mounts into the beginning of expansion is not going to solve much. I think they should use different, more permanent and less generally restricting measures, such as making questing areas non-flight zones while letting us use fliers for general transport.